Guild Wars

Chapter 214 - Jada and Jade 1

Jade took out something that Draco had sent them alongside their new weapons. It was a small bottle of a silvery gray liquid that gleamed with power.

Even though it looked so harmless, Jade was aware of the kind of power this bottle contained, as well as the kind of crazy effects it would have on the world at large.

｢All-Sight – Consumable

Rank: Epic (100% effectiveness)

Effect: Resist all status effects related to blindness for 1 hour. Sight is increased to 270° and one can see clearly in any conditions for 1 hour.｣

One would become able to see at any location, whether it was the depths of the Abyss or the darkest hole of Hell. One would be able to also resist all blindness-related status effects, allowing a player or NPC to battle against monsters who were notorious for those kinds of abilities.

Then, there was the increased range of vision which was arguably the best boon of all. One could remove a huge amount of their blind spots and become more effective in combat. After all, only a handful of freaks like Draco and Riveting Night had access to Control.

The woes of the common player were usually smothered by the greatness of the Evil Duo, but they still existed out there.

Jade tossed one to Jada, who barely managed to catch it amidst her fumbling. Before she could berate Jade for her carelessness, Jade consumed the potion in one big gulp.

The cool twin had expected the potion to taste terrible, so she was quite surprised to find the taste to be really good, like a fizzy soft drink.

What was even better was how the effects came to life. Her field of view suddenly expanded crazily and she could suddenly see Jada who was behind her making obscene gestures while smiling victoriously.

With a frown, Jade spoke without looking back. "I can see what you're doing Jada."

Jada was stunned by this and a bit spooked. Jade continued to walk into the dungeon while Jada silently drank the potion, also marveling at its effects and taste. As such, she cursed when she realized that it had been this potion that had ratted her out!

The Fire and Ice Twins were spelunking the Reaver's Grotto and had now been admitted into a large cavern from the former narrow tunnels. One would have been hard-pressed to see anything in this large open area with no natural lighting.

However, the duo found it easy to see what they wanted, and were astounded by the sheer size and design of the cavern. It was like a giant maze within an open space. There was a large crystal on the ceiling that was pure black in color.

It seemed to radiate some nefarious energy that made the two of them feel greatly uncomfortable, but this seemed to be the source of this cavern's construction, or that the cavern naturally formed around it.

What was even crazier was the sheer number of monsters in the cavern. Many zombies ambled about, with many different types among their ranks.

There were crawlers, who only had an upper body. There were walkers, who walked like drunk or intoxicated humans. There were sprinters, who ran here and there without having any clear goal in whatever was left of their brain.

There were also some mummies. Most of them stood calmly in one place, seemingly asleep. However, they would occasionally burst out and spread their wrappings around like a weave, throwing some insolent zombies about who had come too close.

There were also a few specters, which were like wraiths, but focused on magical attacks rather than physical ones. They could cast some darkness spells and cantrips that would either debuff their target or deal damage over time.

Jada and Jade became serious. Jada first asked her sister: "What's your analysis?"

Jade's mind worked greatly, and one could almost see some lights flashing in her eyes, but one would have to look deeply to see it. After performing many calculations and analysis on the matter, Jade finally settled down and spoke.

"Everything coincides with what Draco had told us. The various zombies act as the cannon fodder melee monsters. They deal damage through their attacks and their sheer numbers."

"The mummies act as crowd control. They use their wrappings to bind enemies and let the zombies bite them to death. Unless one can break out, it would be impossible to survive just one wave."

"Finally, the specters act as the spellcasters of their group. They curse enemies with various dark debuffs and are the reason one needs the All-Sight potion, as they're also able to cause partial-to-full blindness with their spells. They have high physical and slight magic resistance. They are the hardest to deal with."

"The level of the monsters ranges between 30 to 45. Since we are both level 25, this dungeon should be able to allow us to level up to level 30. It should even have enough for us to start filling up the experience required to rank up our wands."

"The weakness of this dungeon's inhabitants is Light Energy, which deals 500% damage to them, and Fire Energy, which deals 250% damage. This place is the perfect zone for a Pyromancer with a powerful auto-attack, or a large-scale active spell."

Jade finished her analysis in a few seconds, and her words came out methodically and with a calm assurance. Jada smiled and closed her eyes, activating her clairvoyance to see the probabilities of their success.

After a minute or two, she opened her eyes and smiled. "We have a 100% chance of clearing this dungeon."

Jade nodded, as that was in line with her own thoughts. After all, Draco had informed them of what to expect and how to capitalize on this area. As such, if they were to fail, they would willingly offer the wands back, as they would be too ashamed to ever use them.

Now that they had devised a plan, The Fire and Ice Twins got to work. They would discuss between each other and demarcate the whole cavern into rectangular zones based on the estimated aggro range of their enemies. This was to avoid the larger cl.u.s.ters of monsters from 'other zones' from assaulting them all at once.

Jada would cast a basic fireball spell that consumed 5% of her mana, but given their inherent weakness to fire it, did a decent amount of splash damage. It was enough to kill many weaker zombies who had less than 400 points of health, but it mostly attracted a good amount of aggro from other monsters.

While the monsters were rushing at them, Jade would cast various slowing spells in order to limit their movements. Then, it would switch back to Jada who would go ham on the poor monsters. After all, the second passive of the Wand of Eternal Fire was the reason it was so powerful as a weapon.

｢Wand of Eternal Fire – Wand

Rank: Semi-Legendary

Effects:

Passive 1 – Eternal Growth: The user can sacrifice experience points to grow this item's rating.

Passive 2 – Eternal Strike: The user's auto-attack magic can be fired at a rate of ten attacks per second. The auto-attack does a fixed damage of 500 and ignores magic defense.

Active 1 – Flame Explosion: Send out a fireball ball that deals 600% flame damage over an area of 50 miles. Cooldown: 1 day.

Further abilities can be unlocked by sacrificing experience points. 0% of 15,000% needed to upgrade to Legendary Rank｣

The active skill wasn't necessary at the moment, but it could possibly play a role later on. Right now, Jada was firing her ten attacks per second in the form of an endless barrage. In just a minute, she had sent out 600 auto-attack fireballs into the crowd of enemies.

More than a few of her attacks missed, as she was not used to sending out so many attacks at once. Aside from the repeated use in order to gather experience, she would have to learn something like Control in order to have perfect mechanical accuracy.

Still, the sheer number of them guaranteed that some attacks struck their targets as long as she pointed it in the right direction. With a boost of 250%, her auto-attack now dealt 1,250 damage per strike.

All the Private Rank Zombies and mummies were killed in one hit, and the Specialists were forced to knock on the door of hell as they were reduced to 30% HP.

The few Sergeant Rank monsters were much better off since they had HP above 10,000. Jada's barrage on them reduced their HP but did not surpass more than 20%.

However, all of this was only considering the fact that she missed more than 60% of her attacks! If Jada was able to increase her accuracy in the future, just what kind of mayhem would she create?

Now, the ball passed back to Jade as Jada maintained her endless barrage, not even stopping for a second to breathe. Jada's slow spell was coming undone and some sprinters were rushing over with arms outstretched, aiming to rip the evil Jada apart.

Some mummies also send out great amounts of their wrappings to constrict Jada so that the sprinters would succeed. Even worse, many specters were able to dodge her spells due to their levitation, making them immune to Jade's slow debuff.

As such, they focused on Jade, sensing that she would become a problem as she was a powerful crowd controller. As spell after spell rained down on the duo, Jade finally showed her prowess with the Wand of Eternal Frost.

｢Wand of Eternal Frost – Wand

Rank: Semi-Legendary

Effects:

Passive 1 – Eternal Growth: The user can sacrifice experience points to grow this item's rating.

Passive 2 – Eternal Defense: The user's auto-attack magic is permanently modified to a defensive skill. Each defensive barrier spawned through this modified auto-attack has 5,000 HP and 50% damage resistance.

Active 1 – Field of Ice: Send out a wave of ice that traps all enemies over an area of 50 miles. Cooldown: 1 day.

Further abilities can be unlocked by sacrificing experience points. 0% of 15,000% needed to upgrade to Legendary Rank｣

Her second passive was just as treacherous as Jada's, allowing her to spawn one ice barrier every second that had 5,000 HP! Most of the monsters here didn't even have that much HP in total.

Once she spawned them, they would stay there until destroyed, or if they melted after a very long time. If given enough time, Jade could build an Ice Fortress where each section had this boon trapping her enemies in an ice-cold labyrinth.

This was not even taking into account the 50% damage resistance, which was just too much! Not only could she make walls of ice that had 5,000 HP in every second, but these walls would also resist 50% of incoming damage, effectively halving it.

In essence, one needed to deal 10,000 damage to break a single ice wall. Draco, without Fragarach and the Seal of Camelot, would not be able to do this at all, and even Riveting Night would struggle a little to do so much damage in a single second.

As such, Jade began spawning walls in the way of the incoming attacks, and none of them lost more than 80% health after the combined onslaught.

She also interspersed this with more slow spells, which were honestly all she had in her repertoire. She was able to defend herself and Jade through her clever placements.

As such, in the span of 15 minutes, they had cleared this 'minor zone' in totality. The experience was enough to send them to level 27 each, so they noiselessly moved to the next 'minor zone' they had artificially demarcated and repeated the whole process.

This was why the Fire and Ice Twins had been one of the most feared groups in Hellscape, and Boundless at large. Jada and Jade's teamwork was too perfect, they complemented each other in almost robotically precise synchronization.

If Jada came under pressure, Jade would slow enemies so that her sister could aim her attacks with much more ease, while Jada would focus fire on monsters that were giving Jade a headache since they would either damage her walls or bypass them.

On their own, these two were not invincible, but together they became unstoppable. They cleared out 'minor zone' after 'minor zone', eventually reaching level 30 as well as raising their wands by inputting experience.

When the duo had run through 90% of the Reaver's Grotto, they finally came into contact with the harder monsters. Many Sergeant Ranks occupied this area, and their high HPs and increased intelligence really strained the duo's battle prowess.

Jada had become much more proficient in her attacks, meaning that she missed a lot less than initially. However, it was still a tall order to fight in this final zone that was filled with Sergeant Ranks.

However, Jade could not use her active skill because they would need it for the Captain Rank boss monster of this dungeon. As such, Jada had to use her own active skill instead, which dealt 600% fire damage over an area of 50 miles.

Flame Explosion!

As if a bomb had been detonated, the area was lit up in flame and explosive pressure starting from Jada's body towards the area around her. This particular dungeon was larger than 25 miles across, so her attack engulfed the whole place.

Why didn't she use it at the very start?

Well, Jada and Rina had two different battle styles, mind you. Rina focused on large scale spells or high-end spells that dealt heavy damage, while Jada used basic spells to buffer her auto-attacks, with her main mode of battle being the very same auto-attacks.

If they entered every dungeon and used their active skills, they would probably be as fast in hunting as Rina, but would Jada's skill in her form of battle increase?

No, it would not. Which was smarter, fighting a bunch of Private and Specialist Rank monsters with auto-attacks to increase proficiency, or fighting a Captain Rank monster with only auto-attacks for the same purpose?

As such, Jada had no qualms in using it now. Even though her base fire damage wasn't more than 350, when multiplied by 600%, the output was 2,100 damage. It couldn't be helped, as Jada had very few passive skills that boosted her damage like Rina, as well as extra Rare/Epic items that did the same.

Still, this was enough to make the many Sergeant Ranks stumble in their steps and lose more than 30% of their HP. Jade capitalized on that time to set up many more walls as well as cast a few more slow spells.

Jada also followed up with more bombarding on her part. How long did it take one to recover from being hit in the face with an explosion of fire? Well, assuming one survived, it should be similar to being hit with a stun/concussion grenade, right?

As such, she had earned herself more than enough time to cull the numbers of the monster down to easily manageable levels, so when they did recover from their improper state of mind, they were still slaughtered methodically by the duo.

At the end of it all, they were both level 30, 0% and had each gained 678% extra experience so far. It was clear that dungeons gave more exp than Field Zones, but they were harder to clear by far. Rina could also hunt dungeons, but it would be a waste of Supernova, so she stuck to Field Zones.

Jada and Jada both put all this experience into their wands without fail, bringing them both to 678% of 15,000%. While the goal was much smaller than what Rina, Draco or the others had to face, it was still 150 whole levels they needed to gather.

After collating their gains from drops and the like, they both readied themselves and made sure they were rested enough before entering a narrow tunnel at the end of the cavern. This tunnel was much shorter than the first one they used, and it opened up to a very small area that was about 1 mile across.

Unlike before, this area had some low-light, so one could strain their eyes to see what was going on. Jada and Jade did not need this, as they had drunk a second bath of All-sight potions after the first one had run out a while ago.

Still, although they knew what would await them, they became stunned when they saw the monster in the center of the area. It was a banshee!

｢Name: Wailing Woman – Captain Rank monster

Level: 45

HP: 135,000/135,000｣

Her HP might seem small compared to other Captain Rank monsters, but she was in the same bracket as the Magic Hind. The Wailing Woman was a monster with low defense and mobility, but on the upside, it possessed pinnacle offense and resistance values.

Both magic and melee attacks were resisted by more than 70% while her damage dealt was 90% higher than other Captain Ranks. No wonder this dungeon had remained undefeated for the longest time, as no player could clear such a fraudulent boss monster.

Monsters with high defense were much more preferred than those with high offense. This was going to be an uphill battle for the two sisters, but they were determined to see it through.

When the Wailing Woman noticed them, it screeched out menacingly before rushing at them. The soundwaves from its cry greatly harmed Jada and Jade, forcing them into a stunned state for 5 seconds.

By the time they came out of it, the Wailing Woman was just barely inches away from them, and her form could be clearly appraised. She was like a European beauty, with proper ridges and a slightly wider torso with a noticeably larger bosom.

She wore a noblewoman's dress that showed a good amount of cleavage and a healthy amount of ankles, which would certainly have made waves back in that time.

With how the Wailing Woman moved, her chest was in right in the line of sight of the person she was assaulting, so no matter how strong a man's will, he would be distracted for a second if a pair of ghost tits appeared in his face.

However, Jada and Jade were two women, and they weren't fazed by this. As such, they were able to mount a quick defense. Jade spawned a wall to block the Wailing Woman while Jade used a fireball spell to force her back.

From there, the Fire and Ice Twins began to show their true power!